Sorry about the lack of a Monday Morning Brew -- with Sean's return from Toronto, the wires got a little crossed. He told me he'd write it, but that was over beers (jet lagged beers, no less)... and the man had a weekend of birthdays and mothers to celebrate. For the time being, we'll be switching it up; I'll be giving you the Tuesday/Thursday lowdown while Sean will keep the sarcasm flowing on all those weekdays surrounding mine.

So the VPD are catching criminals via CrookTube, promoting via Facebook and have tried to round up recruits via Second Life. What's next... viral videos? "The Vancouver Police Department is fucking Matt Damon?" I totally see a Robert Downey Jr. cameo... And what ever came of that Second Life-VPD thing? I find it hard to believe they're still paying some of their men in blue to lurk around a virtual world avoiding item-spam from 12 year olds and unemployed graphic designers. Or do the recruits they picked up in Second Life last year merely explain the force's new love of Facebook? I have too many jokes.

On a more serious note, the RCMP have heavily censored their report on the Dziekanski incident. Meanwhile, on Friday a cardiologist testified that tasers were potentially fatal, while on Monday the chair of Taser International... the guy who probably makes the most money off the damn things... defended them. Maybe the cops just needs to develop a Facebook app to check their agression: "You've just been tased by the Vancouver Police Department! Would you like to install the Vancity-Taser application so you can join in the fun and tase your friends too?"

I'm not gonna link to it, but why is half our media devoted to a dead monkey? I hope these monkey-killers weren't looking for lots of attention/media-celebrity status, cause boy did they get it...

First of all, let me point out that no, I have not recently adopted the use of Internet Slang nor am I so lazy that I cannot type out 3 letters. I'm going to give the benefit of the doubt here and assume most people are already familiar with 4REAL and their mantra. If this is the case, skip the next two paragraphs. For the rest, 4REAL is a documentary television project turned international success story and this summer they are turning up the good time vibes.

Continuing last weeks Vancouver History, here are the Board minutes from 1920 all the way to 1956 from A Guide to Stanley Park by Lynn Vardeman and Freda Carr. Note the increase in absolutely ridiculous proposals, along with the usual array of Vancouver-specific issues, difficulties, and frustrations - some things never change.

If you build it, they will come.

That's precisely the theory that many active opponents of the Gateway Project are putting forth to warn BC residents of the impending failure of the proposed $3 billion road expansion plan if it goes through. They prophesize that the additional road capacity will simply become congested soon after completion due to new commuters being attracted to the shiny new pavement. At a time where gas prices are the topic of choice at a water cooler near you, this issue and many others relating to our transportation infrastructure have all become paramount to Vancouverites as of late.

Recent SFU Communications grad Ryan Longoz has chosen to tackle this controversial topic and has tied it in nicely with a little bit of economics 101 in a compact nine-minute video. Instead of putting the blame for traffic congestion squarely on the government and (get ready for the "c"-word) corporations, he goes a step further, and essentially points the finger at every single one of us iPod-using, gas-guzzling, fashion-wearing consumers. He mentions that "we are all complicit, because we are all complacent" (my favourite quote from the clip) when referring to our transportation and consumption habits.

Photo courtesy The BCLC

When you think of great poker players, the names Johnny Chan and Doyle Brunson are names that come up and there are some good Canadians too like Daniel Negreanu.

But just like Steve Nash to the NBA, British Columbia has made a contribution to the game of poker.

Brad "Yukon" Booth is a regular on television poker appearing on the Game Show Network's High Stakes and NBC Poker After Dark's second season.

Currently, Booth is taking part in the Coast to Coast Poker Championship at the River Rock Casino.

Here is an abridged version of Booth's poker origins:

Beyond Robson: "How did you get started playing poker?"

Brad Booth: "When I was a kid my father used to take me to my grandpa's, who was a barber. He said, 'Play on your own,' so they'd give me some cards and chips and I'd be off in the corner when my grandpa had customers."

"I learned how to shuffle and chip tricks and I learned the basic probability of poker."

I love a good David Mamet movie. His dialogue and plot twists are always top-notch, putting his signature speech patterns on every character he writes. Witness The Untouchables or Glengarry GlenRoss or The Spanish Prisoner, movies with plots that are not dumbed down for a mass audience. They're full of smart, intellectual characters who speak in rhythms and puzzles, pushing the viewer to use their brain rather than give standard expository dialogue to move the story along and make it easier for a wide audience to digest. Luckily for us, his new film Redbelt opens this week. It stars Chiwetel Ejiofor as a martial-arts instructor who gets forced into participating in a prize bout against his will through a series of typically shady Mamet-esque circumstances. Featuring a supporting cast that includes Joe Mantegna, Emily Mortimer, Ricky Jay and Tim Allen (!) as a washed-up actor, Redbelt has been getting slightly mixed reviews, but for Mamet fans, like myself, that won't stop us from going to see it first weekend.

Ashton Kutcher returns to give more reasons for an assassination attempt in his new film What Happens In Vegas..., starring with his female equivalent Cameron Diaz. It's about two predictably zany people who get drunk and wake up to find out they got married. My question is didn't this already happen in an episode of Friends? I hate to defend that show but you know generic Hollywood comedies are running low on ideas when they start ripping off a 10-year-old episode of Friends.